Sports

Roger Federer celebrated his return to the top of the world rankings by winning the Rotterdam Open on Sunday, his 97th career title. The 36-year-old, the oldest No.1 in history, thrashed Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov 6-2, 6-2 in a one-sided final. In the Open era, only American Jimmy Connors has won more titles with 109. “What a fantastic week,” the top ...

Cristiano Ronaldo bagged a hat-trick as Real Madrid warmed up for their Champions League showdown with Paris Saint-Germain with a big 5-2 victory over Real Sociedad in La Liga on Saturday. Zinedine Zidane’s men have not scaled their usual heights this season and this was still not perfect, but they do look to be finding some form just in time ...

Chinese Super League club, Hebei China Fortune, are reportedly prepared to meet the €700m release clause of Barcelona’s Argentine wizard, Lionel Messi. Messi recently signed a new long-term deal at the Nou Camp with a €700m release clause. New rules in Chinese football mean any deal would cost Hebei a staggering €1.4bn (£1.2bn). Reports in various European news media said ...

Australian Open champion Caroline Wozniacki handed 16-year-old Russian wild card Anastasia Potapova a 6-0, 6-1 rout at the St Petersburg WTA event on Thursday in her first match since her maiden Grand Slam triumph. The world number one, seeking her 29th singles title, swept to victory over the world number 235 in just 67 minutes and next faces sixth seeded ...

Neymar is back is in the Paris Saint-Germain squad for their Ligue 1 clash with Montpellier on Saturday after missing two matches with injury, the French league leaders announced on Friday. Paris Saint-Germain’s Brazilian forward Neymar celebrates scoring a goal during the UEFA Champions League Group B football match between RSC Anderlecht and Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) at the Constant Vanden ...

Manchester United on Monday confirmed the signing of Alexis Sanchez from Arsenal, with Henrikh Mkhitaryan heading in the opposite direction. “I am thrilled to be joining the biggest club in the world,” said 29-year-old Chile international forward Sanchez. “I have spent three-and-a-half wonderful years at Arsenal and I bring with me very positive memories of that great club and its ...

Michael Phelps is in the news nit because he’s on the gold medal stand. He shared the story of his personal encounter with depression at a mental health conference in Chicago earlier in January. “You do contemplate suicide,” the winner of 28 Olympic medals told a hushed audience at the fourth annual conference of the Kennedy Forum, a behavioral health ...

American world 100m silver medallist Christian Coleman broke the 60 metres indoor world record clocking 6.37 seconds at a meeting in Clemson, South Carolina. Coleman broke the previous record of 6.39 seconds set twice by fellow American Maurice Greene, the first time in 1998. The performance is subject to ratification by athletics’ world governing body the IAAF. The 21-year-old Coleman, ...

FIFA has stripped Nigeria of the one point they earned from their final 2018 World Cup qualifier against Algeria in Constantine on November 10, after the world football body discovered that the Super Eagles fielded an ineligible player, Shehu Abdullahi. FIFA also fined the Nigeria Football Federation 6,000 Swiss Francs (about N2,162, 923) for the development. The Eagles had secured ...

Cristiano Ronaldo says he is the “best player in history” after winning his fifth Ballon d’Or on Thursday, Skysports reports. The Real Madrid forward scooped the award, which is organised by magazine France Football, for the fifth time to tie level with Lionel Messi’s tally. Ronaldo, who helped his side win the Champions League and La Liga last season, also won the ...

Super Eagles coach Gernot Rohr has been given a new contract that will expire in 2019. The Nigeria Football Federation president Amaju Pinnick announced the new deal at an event in Lagos on Monday. Rohr, who helped Nigeria qualify for their sixth World Cup, will arrive in Russia for next year’s football’s showpiece having another two years with the Eagles ...

Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo announced on Sunday that he had become a father for the fourth time after girlfriend Georgina Rodriguez gave birth to a baby girl, Alana Martina. “Alana Martina has just been born! Both Geo and Alana are doing great. We are all very happy,” the beaming 32-year-old footballer wrote on Twitter, posting a photo of himself, ...

Nigeria coach Gernot Rohr is considering his options as he looks to arrive at the Russia 2018 World Cup with a top-class goalkeeper. The Super Eagles were plunged into a goalkeeping crisis after the team’s first choice keeper Carl Ikeme was diagnosed with acute leukaemia in July. And it is believed that Ikeme, who is currently undergoing treatment, has a ...

Cristiano Ronaldo’s stunning last season saw him win the 2017 Best FIFA Men’s Player of the Year trophy as Real Madrid dominated a star-studded awards ceremony in London on Monday. The Portuguese ace, who has scored 44 goals in just 48 games for club and country so far this calendar year, played a major role in Real winning both La ...

Super Eagles of Nigeria, Saturday trashed the fearless Chipolopolo of Zambia hence becoming the first African team to advance to Russia after taking an unassailable lead atop Group B. It will be their sixth World Cup finals appearance. The match which ended 1-0 doused the tension of many Nigerian fans. Arsenal’s Alex Iwobi’s fantastic short saw the Nigerian Super Eagles ...

Brazilian police on Thursday arrested the chairman of the country’s Olympic Committee as part of a probe into alleged buying of votes to secure Rio’s hosting of the 2016 Games. Police said in a statement that Carlos Nuzman, 75, was arrested on suspicion of corruption, money laundering and criminal association. Twenty police officers deployed early Thursday in Rio de Janeiro ...

Nigeria’s home-based Eagles Sunday, suffered a 4-1 humiliating loss to Ghana in the final match of the 2017 WAFU Nations Cup. Playing in front of a capacity crowd at the new Cape Coast Stadium, the home-based Eagles, who had defeated Ghana 2-0 in a group game last Monday, were completely taken apart, shred into pieces, dismantled, offering little in attack ...